The two most common asphaltic based shingles offered in the residential roofing market today are called 3-tab shingles and laminated architectural shingles also known as laminated dimensional shingles or just laminated shingles for short. Most residential homes in the United States that have asphaltic shingle roofs that are at least 15 years old were traditionally roofed with the standard 3-tab asphaltic shingles. These 3-tab shingles come in various colors but white and black still dominated the market. Today newer homes and newly reroofed homes across the continental United States are predominately roofed with the newer laminated architectural or designer shingles and the popularity of these laminated dimensional shingles are quickly rising. The reason for the increase in popularity of these laminated design shingles is the aesthetic curb appeal, heavier weights than traditional 3-tab shingles that lead to higher wind uplift ratings, better hail resistance, as well as longer warranties.
The asphaltic 3-tab shingle is so named “3-tab” by roofers, contractors and manufacturers because the 36 inch long shingle is made up of three individual tabs that are each about 12″ wide. The 3-tab shingle is manufactured using a substrate or reinforcement that is usually glass, organic felt, basalt, polyester or the like known in the roofing industry. This reinforcement or substrate is often referred to as a mat. This mat is saturated and or coated with asphaltic and or modified asphaltic or modified bitumen compound in one or more steps. The use of a polyester mat in a shingle provides better, tensile, elongation, tear and puncture resistance. The use of a glass or basalt mat in a shingle provides better dimensional stability and fire resistance, particularly fire penetrating the roof deck as compared to when organic felt or polyester is used as a mat in shingles.
In the last 15 years most shingle manufacturers have switched from using organic felt as a substrate or mat to using glass as the substrate or mat. Glass mat is relatively cheap, offers better fire resistance and does not require a dissimilar asphalt to saturate the organic felt during production. Typical organic felt shingles required an asphalt of lower softening point as measured by ASTM D36 Ring and Ball test method and a higher penetration asphalt as measured by ASTM D5 using a needle penetrometer at 25 degrees Celsius. After the felt has been saturated with the softer saturent asphalt it is coated with coating grade oxidized asphalt sometimes referred to as a type III or type IV asphalt. As one can surmise the term saturent asphalt and coating asphalt come from the production of organic felt based 3-tab shingles.
The top side of the 3-tab shingle exposed to the elements is typically covered with #11 size roofing granules of various colors or color blends. These #11 granules are also on other roofing products like modified bitumen rolled roofing and Built Up Roofing (BUR) cap sheets to name a few. The granules are embedded into the upper surface to protect the asphaltic material from UV and solar radiation prolonging the longevity of the material. The color of the granule will depends on the ceramic pigment or pigments used to coat them. The ceramic coating is frequently fired in a kiln to harden and set the ceramic coating to enhance the durability of the granules when exposed to the elements and at times recoated and fired again in a kiln to give the granules a brighter or whiter appearance and a to make the coating more scratch resistant, longer lasting and in general better weathering performance. The colors and frequently the color blends are supplied from companies like Specialty Granule Inc. (SGI) formerly known as International Specialty Products (ISP) or 3M to name a few.
The standard size of roofing granules used to produce the majority of residential shingles in the United States are known as #11 roofing granules but these granules can come in different sizes with predefined sieve gratings. For example #18 granules are smaller than #11 granules and the #11 granules are smaller than the #4 larger granules. The smaller the granule number, the larger the granules are. This is based on the sieves used to define the different granules.
The size and particularly the sieve grating of the granules are very important to the manufacturer in order to achieve as close to full coverage as possible on the top or uppermost asphaltic or modified asphaltic or similar surfaces used in the industry for protection from solar radiation, ultraviolet rays, heat, rain, etc. so that they can warranty their products for their expected life cycle, and to impart the aesthetic look to their products that customers expect at a cost affordable to the consumer. The smaller the granule size the more the base rock needs to be milled, ground or crushed. The milling, grinding or crushing process often requires multiple steps to produce these smaller granules and this means more time, man power and energy is needed for production. Since the standard #11 sized roofing granules are larger in overall size than granules defined as #14 or #18 granules, the #11 sized granules are more economical to manufacture and cost less to the end user than the smaller #14 or #18 granules.
The #18 granules achieve more coverage on the surface of a material because of their size and sieve grating but are not commonly used because of their higher price. Typically the cost of the #18 size granules are often 1.5 or 2 times the cost of the larger #11 standard size roofing granule. Sieve grating ranges by ASTM D451 test method for the #11 standard sized roofing granules and the smaller #14 and #18 sized granules are shown in Table 1 below.
TABLE 1Typical Ranges Sieve Gradation—ASTM D451SGI #113M #11StandardStandard3M #14SGI #183M #18US SieveMillimetersRoofingRoofingSmall RoofingSmall RoofingSmall RoofingSize(mm)GranulesGranulesGranulesGranulesGranules121.7 4-10 4-10  0-0.3  0-0.5  0-0.5161.1830-4530-500.5-15   0-6.00-6200.84125-3520-4038-62 2.0-26.0 2-20300.59514-2410-3023-3848.0-76.040-80400.4252-9 1-10 1-18 4.0-32.010-45PANn/a0-20-20-4  0-6.0 0-10
On the top side of the 3-tab shingle that is not exposed to the elements, natural or non-ceramic colored granules can be used to reduce the cost of the shingle. These non-coated natural colored granules are often referred to as head lap granules in the roofing industry and are typically of the same size as the standard #11 granule used in the exposed areas of the shingle.
The shingle often has an adhesive applied to the granule surface during the manufacturing process that is commonly referred to as shingle tab adhesive so that when the shingles are installed the individual pieces will bond to each other to help prevent blow off of shingles from the roof during a wind event. Sometimes the tab adhesive is applied to the back of the shingle depending on the manufacturer and shingle design.
The shingle tab adhesive is usually activated by heat from the sun after the shingles are applied to the roof. Some manufacturers use a pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) or combination of a heat activated tab adhesive and a PSA. The roofing contractor may also need to apply a mastic or adhesive in the field in certain roof areas and conditions as needed or appropriate as detailed by the manufacturer of the shingles or by certain code organizations. Standard 3-tab shingles are typically rated for 60 mph winds.
3-tab shingles are usually made on a substrate that can be 1, 2, 3, 4 or even 6 times the width of the final shingles. The wider widths increase productivity and reduce overall manufacturing expenses. Each shingle width on the line is often called a “lane”. Each lane passes under or over a cutting cylinder where the tabs are cut out of the shingles to give the 3-tab shingle its distinctive look. The lanes are then slit to the proper width and then cut into pieces approximately 36 inches in length. These cut shingles are then counted, stacked and packaged into bundles. Usually a bundle has enough shingles to roof ⅓ of a roofing square or about 33.3 square feet of roof area. Three bundles typically make up 100 square feet of covered roof area often referred to as a roofing square. 3-tab shingles come with a 15, 20, 25, or 30 year warranty depending on the weight and manufacturer. 3-tab shingles as well as laminated architectural or designer shingles work by shedding water to the shingle below in order to keep a home or residence dry. The pitch or roof slope is important to shedding the water. Typical minimum slope that is recommended by the manufacturer for good performance is usually a slope equal to or greater than 4 inches rise to 12 inches in length or 4″ in 12″. When the slope is 2 in 12 inches to 4 in 12 inches, usually two layers of underlayment is often required under the shingles to help shed the water and to prevent water from entering the home. Each manufacture has its own recommendations for performance and warranty considerations.
Architectural or dimensional shingles were developed in the 1970's for the high end home market. Home owners were looking for an asphalt shingle product that had the aesthetic appearance of cedar or wood shakes while providing the performance of asphaltic roofing materials. In reality, laminated shingles are actually an enhanced, stronger version of a standard 3-tab shingle and this is why laminated shingles are sometimes called architectural shingles. Architectural shingles are sometimes constructed with a heavier base mat with multiple layers of materials adhered together. This gives the “dimensional” shingles a layered or three dimensional look. Whereas the standard three tab shingle contains a flat layer with no dimensional thickness to it. FIG. 1 shows a picture of a 3-tab shingled roof section.
The appearance of the 3-tab shingle in FIG. 1 is repetitive and looks relatively flat to the eye when viewed up close, from the side or from the street level. The 3-tab shingles were the mainstay of American homes 15 or more years ago because they worked, were relatively economical in comparison to wood shakes, tile or similar roof cover offerings.
Laminated or architectural shingles also known as dimensional or composite shingles are made similarly to 3-tab shingles but unlike a 3-tab shingle, a laminated shingle has an extra layer under its lower half to mimic the look of wood shakes on roofs. This added thickness gives the tabs on a laminated shingle a thickness that is twice the depth of a 3-tab shingle. One of the primary goals of a laminated shingle is to provide a more natural and deeper look than that offered by a conventional 3-tab shingle.
A laminated shingle also creates depth by featuring tabs of varying widths. These cut out shingle tabs are sometimes called dragon teeth because of their shape. When the dragon tooth portion of the laminate shingle is glued to the backer strip the area between the cut out dragon teeth are separated by large, randomly spaced gaps. The large spaces between the cut tabs highlight the thickness of the tabs, creating a visually appealing effect of depth trying to reproduce the look of wood shakes.
The laminate shingles as mentioned previously are formed from cut tab sections of dragon teeth that are combined together with a backer strip. Originally these two pieces were combined together off line after cutting out the individual dragon teeth and individual backer strips. The off line process of gluing the two pieces together was time consuming and labor intensive adding to the high cost of laminate shingles. This off line procedure was used early on during the manufacturing of laminate shingles. Today the two pieces are frequently glued or laminated together in line to combine the two pieces during the manufacturing process. Once the inline combiner was perfected, laminate shingles could be produced faster and more economically and they became affordable and readily available to the homeowner, architect and contractor.
Architectural laminate shingles can weigh almost 50% more than the standard 3 tab shingles. Because of this heavier construction they are less likely to warp and they can provide better wind resistance. Most architectural shingles are rated for 80 mph up to 120 mph wind resistance. Also, the architectural or laminated shingles do a much better job hiding imperfections in the roofing structure. The laminate shingles frequently come with a 30 year warranty and some even have limited life time warranties from the manufacturer.
The advantages to laminate architectural or design shingles are many and include more aesthetically pleasing, better curb appeal due to the different layers and cut out designs with various color shading and tab widths, and often have a longer manufacture warranty due to the layered design and heavier weights. Also laminate shingles generally have a higher wind uplift resistance and usually better resistance to hail impacts. Based on the region and availability, the cost of architectural shingles may only be about 20% more than the traditional 3-tab shingles although some of the higher end 50 year warranty or life time warranty laminated shingles will help shingle products can be almost twice the expense of 3-tab shingles to purchase. A section of a roof with laminate architectural (dimensional) shingles is shown in FIG. 2.
The dimensional look of the laminated architectural shingles is apparent up close, from the side and from the street level. For ease of comparison FIG. 3 shows a section of roof with 3-tab shingles and a section of roof with the laminated architectural shingles placed side by side to show the dimensional differences between the two shingle types.
One of the biggest drawbacks to shingles in general, whether they are 3-tab or laminated architectural shingles, is the number of individual pieces to install, the relatively small size of the shingles themselves, and the time it takes to install all the individual pieces. Manufacturers of shingles and other roof coverings have tried different shapes, designs, attributes and sizes to overcome these drawbacks. It typically takes three bundles of standard 3-tab asphalt shingles to cover one square on a roof. A roofing square is equal to 100 square feet of roof area coverage, so each bundle covers roughly 33⅓ square feet. Heavier 3-tabbed shingles and laminated shingles require four, or sometimes five, bundles to cover a square. When shingles come three bundles to the square, there are roughly 29 standard-sized shingles that are 12 inches wide by 36 inches long in each bundle.
For example, a typical 1500 square foot residential roof would require 15 roofing-squares or approximately 45 bundles of 3-tab shingles. That 1500 square foot roof would require about 1305 three-tab shingles to be properly aligned and installed. Needless to say, installing that number of shingles will require significant labor and time to correctly protect this 1500 square foot roof.
Some manufacturers have tried to design and market membranes or rolled products that can cover 50 or even 100 square feet of residential roofing area at a time. These products are similar to commercial rolled roofing products like BUR cap sheet and modified bitumen rolled membranes. Although somewhat functional, these products have not had good customer or contractor acceptance due to the lack of aesthetic curb appeal since these membranes lack a pattern or design and use only blended or single colored #11 size roofing granules on the top surface. Another reason these products have not gained market share and customer acceptance can be attributed to the difficulty of installing these products on a residential sloped roof particularly products that have low tear resistance.
Some manufactures have tried to produce a roll product with a design that looks like wood shakes, tiles or bricks to reduce the time and labor needed to install a residential roof but these products also lack the aesthetic curb appeal desired by the homeowner or contractor partially due to the appearance and quality of the design. Sometimes the design on these membranes lacked depth and dimension and were relatively flat to the eye or the rolled products have designs and patterns that are of fixed dimensions that repeat and or lack the aesthetic 3-D effect of the emulated design.
When rolls and or membranes are manufactured with a fixed and repetitive design and are installed on residential roofs or the like, they frequently lack aesthetic curb appeal because a zipper line or zig zag effect is often seen in the fixed dimensions of the pattern or design. This diagonal zipper or zig zag line can often be seen in a standard 3-tab shingle roof and is due to the fixed and continuous design dimensions of the shingle tabs themselves. This zipper effect is very apparent and is highlighted with arrows to help identify the issue is shown in FIG. 4.
Another issue to be overcome when manufacturing a continuous sheet or rolled membrane material with a pattern or design on the surface is applying/depositing the media or granules onto the surface of the material in a precise pattern without the granules moving or blending to the point the pattern or design is blurred or marred. Typically, during the manufacturing of rolled roofing membranes or shingles, a continuous sheet of material or substrate made of fiberglass, polyester, organic felt or similar materials known to those familiar to the art of making shingles and rolled roofing membranes is unrolled, then dipped or coated or extruded with a molten or tacky material such as asphalt or modified asphalt or bitumen or thermoplastic or elastomeric polymers or any combination thereof in one or more steps and put through a set of rollers or scrapers to obtain a predefined thickness. Sometimes the tacky material is coated directly to a film or even a release liner or a steel belt or similar apparatus or equipment depending on the design and equipment capabilities. Regardless of how the material is manufactured or if it has a mat or not, the hot molten or semi-molten or even a cold tacky sheet can then move beneath a granule application device. This device typically consists of a hopper or granule applicator or a set of hoppers that hold granules or blended granules, sand, talc or the like and a fluted roll or belt that can meter on a predetermined amount of media or granules or can drop or even meter on an overabundance of media or granules onto the top or exposed upper surface to make sure the material is protected and the aesthetic nature of the material is preserved. Typically the excess granules are removed and often recycled for use. Normally the granules are partially pressed into the surface of the material using a press roller or the like with an opposition roll or the like and/or are partially pressed into the surface of the material through an S-wrap or even possibly through both apparatuses so that the granules can be partially embedded into the surface so that they stay in place once the material is fully cooled or the adhesive is set. Sometimes an overcoat of adhesive or other material or liquid like a clear acrylic coating is added after or before the granules are put onto the material.
In general, rolled products designed for the construction industry for residential and or commercial markets today are simplistic with designs and patterns having the same dimensions that are repeated continuously on the roll or membrane. These patterns or designs try to simulate tile, bricks or even a 3-tab shingle that often lacks the desired curb appeal consumers are looking for. What is needed in the industry is a construction material, membrane or rolled roofing and or siding material that can emulate the varied dimensions of laminated architectural shingles, that is aesthetically pleasing to the consumer, that reduces the amount of pieces applied by the contractor, that can lower labor costs and lower the overall cost of the applied roof or siding system, that does not have a repetitive pattern or design, that is easier to install, have good wind up lift resistance and possibly reduce the amount of hail damage that can occur during a storm. To date no rolled membrane has achieved the look of a 3-D laminated designer shingle until now.
A typical granule application device uses a hopper or media applicator unit and a gate that can have a fluted roll or a belt rotating beneath the hopper or media applicator unit to meter on and allow the granules to fall onto the moving sheet of roofing or siding or similar material or membrane. However, these devices do not adequately control the amount of granules falling or placed onto the material and usually an abundance of granules are added to the material or membrane sheet. The excess granules must be removed during the process causing engineering solutions to reclaim these granules for reuse or to discard. The current granule hoppers or media applicator units and metering devices do not allow the granules to be applied/deposited accurately or in a random, predetermined and predefined pattern.
Montgomery disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,589 one example of an application device. This granule application device includes a series of granule applicators and a sheet that travels under the applicators for receiving the granules. Each applicator includes a roll and gate unit for depositing the granules by allowing the granules to just fall to the sheet. This device does not deposit granules in a predefined pattern on the sheet and does not control the dropping of the granules.
Another device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,869 to Brady, et al. This device includes a series of hoppers for applying granules to a continuously moving strip. This device provides a means for sensing the amount of excess granules collected in a back fall hopper and for monitoring the rate of discharge of the granules to the back fall hopper. However, this device does not provide a system and method that controls the dropping of granules and depositing granules in a pattern on the continuously moving sheet.
Other granule application systems are overly complex and have been unable to simply and efficiently deposit a pattern of granules on a continuous membrane or sheet of material. Such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,295,445 and 4,352,837 issued to Kopenhaver. This type of apparatus and process for manufacturing roofing shingles is a long and complex process in which one stage includes applying a series of bands of coating asphalt with an inking wheel so that the granules will stick to the bands of asphalt in a pattern. Such a complex and time consuming process is expensive and unproductive. In the art of roofing shingle manufacturing, substantial efforts have been devoted to the simulation of wood or other such “natural” appearance and textures. For example U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,142,181 and 2,070,571 exemplify a class of schemes for imitating the appearance of the grain of weathered wooden shingles.
Others have sought to create the image of depth by utilizing bands of different colored grit. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,368,947 utilizes stripping along adjacent edges of installed shingles to give an appearance of shading caused by thickness in shake or thatched roofs. U.S. Pat. No. 1,898,989 teaches the use of different colored sequential stripes for adjacent shingles. Also, the prior art includes another class of shingle construction wherein the lower edge of the shingles is irregularly cut or scalloped to give a random thatched appearance.
Bockh et al, proposes a system and method for depositing a pattern of media on a moving surface in U.S. Pat. No. 5,814,369 that includes a media depositing apparatus that deposits media in a predefined pattern on the moving surface. The media applicator roll having a media receiving region, such as engraved or raised portions, receives the media from a media feeder as the media applicator roll rotates. A media retaining member maintains the media in contact with the media receiving region until the media reach a bottom region of the media applicator roll and are released from the media applicator roll in the predefined pattern onto the moving surface. The method for depositing a pattern of media includes synchronizing the speed of rotation of the media applicator roll with the speed of the moving sheet of material so that the media are precisely deposited as they are released from the media receiving region.
Pastorutti et al, teaches a system and method for depositing a predefined pattern of a medium, such as granules or similar particles or viscous liquids on a moving surface in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2016033219A1. This apparatus and process disclosed concerns an apparatus and process to make decorations, patterns or designs on a material such as prefabricated water-proofing bitumen-mix membrane, usable, for example, for covering roofs or external surfaces of dwellings, such as terraces, apartment blocks or industrial plants.
The patents by Bockh and Pastorutti both teach a fixed predefined pattern roll applicator synchronized with the production line speed so that the predefined pattern is not blurred or distorted causing an unacceptable, unappealing look to the pattern and ultimately the finished material. There appears to be no teachings or disclosures in these and other similar patents on how to eliminate the zipper line or zig zag effect that is formed from a predefined repeating pattern or design, or disclose how to create a three dimensional pattern or design or more precisely a pattern or design that looks like a laminated designer shingle. Known prior art also does not disclose the sequence to create the pattern or design, the best sizes for the medium or granules or granule color blends needed to optimize the pattern or design or the colors, color blends or shading needed in order to make a pattern or design that is three dimensional and more precisely emulated the architectural laminate designer shingle until now.